(LifeSiteNews) — The outrageous, un-American, unconstitutional treatment that U.S. military men and women endured due to the Pentagon’s tyrannical COVID-19 vaccine mandate is now revealed in a riveting new documentary, Duty to Disobey.
Under the Biden administration, over 8,000 service members were forced out of the military because they could not in good conscience consent to receive the experimental, aborted fetal cell-tainted COVID-19 “vaccine.” Many more suffered serious adverse medical side effects from the untested gene therapy. Hundreds, perhaps more, were driven to despair and committed suicide.
At the first possible moment in 2021, President Joe Biden publicly insisted that Pentagon leadership add the COVID-19 jab to the already extensive list of vaccinations that all 1.3 million active duty military “must get,” even though the mRNA-based drug had not received FDA approval.
Duty to Disobey tells the story of those who stood their ground against the vast military complex and its cruel vaccine mandate and explains why their stories matter to every American. This film is not only about those who wore a uniform. It is about the future of constitutional limits, individual conscience, and the courage required to defend both.
At a recent screening of Duty to Disobey in Washington, D.C., Senator Ron Johnson suggested that military members were turned into “lab rats” forced to submit to a “toxic, Frankenstein-type injection” that amounted to “experimental gene therapy.”
“This movie is a tribute to the finest among us,” said Johnson.
“The military is based on orders,” stressed former U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and West Point graduate Brad Miller at the outset of the film. “Good order and discipline are fundamental in the military,” yet “that all changes when we talk about orders that are unlawful.”
“From the first time you put on a uniform, you are taught that you have a duty to disobey unlawful orders,” said retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, R. Davis Younts, an attorney who now defends the rights and freedoms of military service members and veterans.
“You cannot mandate an experimental medical product on military members,” said Younts.
Miller, Younts, and countless others found themselves having to navigate an “impossible position between their careers, conscience, and medical autonomy,” according to Dr. Ron Scott, president and CEO of STARRS.
Samuel Shoemate, a retired Chief Warrant Officer with the Army suggested that there was a nefarious motive underlying the unconscionable demand that all service members receive the untested gene therapy.
“We had this giant pool of people that have to follow orders, have to take these drugs when they’re ordered to do it,” Shoemate pointed out. “If I wanted to test mRNA against the largest pool of people possible, I would pick the United States military.”
Incalculable levels of harm due to an unlawful military mandate
“From the time that the mandate started to the time it ended, a thousand service members took their lives,” explained Seth Ritter, a now-former Army Captain.
“Suicide was running rampant,” said Karolina Stancik, a now-former U.S. Army Specialist.
“Suicides were at an all-time high during this time,” noted Chad Coppin, formerly a Lieutenant with the U.S. Coast Guard. Coppin attributes the record suicides to “the coercion and the pressures being put on all of us by our commanding officers, the Admirals, Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas and up to the President.”
Navy SEALs were threatened with court martials if they refused the COVID-19 vaccination. Soldiers were called “traitors.” Others were treated as if they were mentally ill in order to discredit them.
“They threatened me with Leavenworth imprisonment,” recounted Mark Charles Bashaw, Captain, U.S. Army, who was reinstated in November, 2025. “It was really surreal to be court martialed for not wearing a muzzle and not participating in the experimental testing because I was unvaccinated.” Democrat extremist Eugene Vindman rejoiced at Bashaw’s conviction in an appalling Twitter (now X) post.
Air Force Staff Sergeant Lance Castle shared documentation showing that he was considered by his superiors to be an “insider threat” due to his refusal to take the COVID vaccine. They suggested that he had been radicalized by an anti-U.S. government group.
Castle was imprisoned for 66 days and was subjected to a “cell extraction” in order to stun him into compliance.
Millions watched the video of his “extraction” in horror after it was posted on social media:
The Saga of USAF Senior Airman Lance Castle, after refusing the CV-19 bio-weapon.
Here’s a video of him being extracted from his cell.
This man was dubbed an “insider threat,” given 60 days pre-trial confinement (missed the birth of 1st born), and sent to a court martial to… pic.twitter.com/pq53DJT1mm
— Mark Charles Bashaw (@MCBashaw) April 7, 2024
Those who were dishonorably discharged found themselves without income and deprived of health insurance and GI benefits. Their reputations were tarnished, relegated to the same status as a criminal. Unable to find work, some of our most patriotic Americans ended up homeless.
“We must see justice served!” declared retired Chief Warrant Officer Shoemate.
Under the Trump administration, that is beginning to happen. Servicemembers who were forced out of the military are being “reinstated, receiving an apology, back pay, and rank,” as promised by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
“That was huge,” said Brandi Barnard King, (former) Colonel, U.S. Air Force, “but that does nothing for the institution itself.”
“We have done nothing to make sure that this gross violation of human rights does not happen again,” she warned.
“COVID and its risk mitigation policies was the biggest infringement upon our personal liberties within our lifetime,” said John Frankman, a former seminarian who previously served as a captain in the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group.
It became standard operating procedure within the Navy to deny religious exemptions to the vaccine according to U.S. Navy Commander and author Robert A. Green, Jr.
“It was clear to me that what we were discussing wasn’t science,” said Capt. Bashaw. “Some could argue it was a religion – of masking, of testing, of injections – yet I’m not able to execute my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?”
“Until there’s a reckoning around COVID in the military and around the world and in the civilian population, there won’t be trust in the government, there won’t be trust in the military, there won’t be trust in the medical system, nor should there be,” asserted attorney Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense CEO.
“What happened with COVID,” observed Lt. Col. Miller, “we have to look at as an assault on our liberties.”
“We are working hard every single day to right the wrongs and correct the injustices of the Biden administration,” promised Hegseth at the conclusion of the film.
Attend a screening of ‘Duty to Disobey’
Duty to Disobey will be screened at the theaters around the country on June 30. Go to the Duty to Disobey website to find a location near you and purchase tickets.